Without apparently some Members having a real understanding, or fully appreciating the importance, of the subject matter before them, the majority of Tynwald have nevertheless voted to support plans to widen the range of Tynwald proceedings broadcasted.

The Tynwald Management Committee - consisting of the President of Tynwald, Noel Cringle, House of Keys’ Speaker Steve Rodan, Anne Craine MHK, Geoff Corkish MHK and John Houghton MHK - presented a report to Tynwald this month making two recommendations.

The first related to an approach by Manx Radio for permission, in principle, to broadcast the public sessions of the Select Committee investigating the MEA scandal.

The Management Committee considered the request and could see no reason, in principle, why Select Committee hearings couldn’t be broadcast; but recommended this should only be done if all public sessions of all Committees were broadcast. However, they realized this would have resource implications for Manx Radio, so recommended that this should only proceed when resources were available for ‘non-selective’ broadcasting.

The second issue within the Report related to a proposal from the Positive Action Group for the broadcasts to be ‘Webcasted’.

This seemed to tax the brains of some of  Members, who failed to appreciate the difference between having a camera connected to a website, which refreshes the picture every minute or so, and access to an ‘on-demand’, indexed, and searchable, audio-visual recording of the proceedings; e.g. Tynwald or Select Committee sittings.

During the debate a number of red herrings were thrown in to help obscure the main issue, such as suggestions it may cost a few thousand quid a year to fund, or that too few people would use the facility - because few people access the online broadcasts of Tynwald or come to sit in the Tynwald gallery. The fact that many people are at work, when Tynwald, Keys and Select Committees are in session, seems to have been conveniently ignored.

The public, even if only a few people take advantage of the facility to begin with, have the right to see and hear how their elected representatives perform, on their behalf, in Parliament and in Committees.

Access to Hansards, which are edited texts of Tynwald and Committee proceedings, are a poor substitute for seeing and hearing what was actually said and the manner in which it was said. Written texts, for example, do not convey the tone of speech.

Apparently Manx Radio is working on a facility to provide a searchable audio vault of Tynwald proceedings but, whilst that is accepted as progress, it is not enough; especially as it is only in a gestation period.

The Manx Herald acknowledges that Members supported, bar two (Mr Turner and Mr Earnshaw), the recommendation to further investigate the possibilities of webcasting and report back to Tynwald, in December 2008, but it shows, in our opinion, a lack of real commitment to opening up Tynwald, and its workings, to a wider audience.

Lack of money and resources can not be a genuine reason, when millions of pounds can be pulled out of the hat, at moment’s notice, to spend on an antiquated railway system, or a lack of interest by the public.